The Sword of Hope II (VC) - At 15-20 hours, it's probably one of the most bang for your buck GB games you can download at the moment. It's story and gameplay are simple, but it's a charming DL for RPG fans (and it's neat seeing them try to be cinematic with a GB game).

The Denpa Men: They Came by Wave (eShop) - easily the most time consuming eShop game available for purchase (20-30 hours to beat story. 40-50 hours if you want to do post story stuff). The Denpa Men add a unique charm (and quirkyness) not found anywhere else, but don't be fooled by it's cuteness, at it's core it's a pretty by the numbers dungeon crawler that can get deceptively difficult (especially the post story dungeons).

Crimson Shroud (eShop) - harkening back to the origins of the RPG genre (no leveling in favor of looting for gear, and lots of dice rolling), this game is sure to bring about nostalgia in you old types, yet feel completely new & fresh to us youngsters (like me). It's not a very long quest (averaging 8-10 hours per playthrough), but it weaves one of the more interesting tales you'll find on 3DS, and you're likely to play through it a second time (to get the good ending).

Paper Mario: Sticker Star - Like Crimson Shroud, Anonymous Notes (DSiWare), and many other before them, PM:SS is an RPG that favors item looting in favor of leveling (make what you will of the one time use twist), and it'll take around 20 hours to beat (30 if you aim for all 8 achievements). It's story is more subdued than past entries, but because of the extra attention to detail (everything looks like papercraft), this game is still full of that classic PM charm (I'm a huge fan of the N64 game, and I'm glad to have played Sticker Star).

Tales of the Abyss - It may be a PS2 port, but it's still the most bang for your buck RPG I've played on 3DS (50 hours to beat, 70 including sidequests). The characters are interesting, and the story has some cool twists along the way. It also has a combat system accessible enough to RPG newcomers, with enough depth to keep RPG veterans entertained as well.

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance - Probably my favorite RPG on the system (but I am a huge KH fan). The story is pretty interesting to us KH fans, some of the later boss battles are probably the most epic on 3DS, IMO, the production values are top notch, the new monster collecting aspect brings new life (and strategy) to the series, flowmotion is fun to play around with, and you're likely to get 20-40 hours out of it.

This list isn't in any particular order, but just my thoughts on what I've played.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: A great game with plenty of replay value, for me it easily sits among the top 3 KH games. The battles were satisfying, the monster collecting was fun, the story was quite good, it looked very pretty on my 3DS XL screen and I played it for 90 hours( two playthroughs) without getting bored for a moment.
The other two RPGs I've played were: 1) Paper Mario, which lacked replay value and felt incomplete as a whole, but was good fun while it lasted. 2) Tales of the Abyss, which has massive replay value and a pretty good story, but I just couldn't get to like the protagonist, no matter how hard I tried.

I've only got Tales of the Abyss for my RPG needs on the 3DS (I don't count Ocarina of Time, its an adventure game). It's pretty good, but I really need to play it more. Project X Zone will probably be better when it comes out though.

I'm actually playing Unchained Blades, great game so far, a little difficult for newcomers on the genre, but very pleasant when you learn how it works, 30 hours and counting, actually begining Chapter 3. . .

I've got Tales of The Abyss, The Denpamen: They Came By Wave, Heroes of Ruin and Crimson Shroud. I've enjoyed all of them so far, but I prefer actual level grinding to looting, I really like Crimson Shroud but I would really like to see more RPGs on the eShop to be more like The Denpamen, with level grinding and such.
I can safely say there will definitely be more games like The Denpamen in the future, that of course being it's sequel, which we all should hopefully get, but I don't know how many of the same RPGs we'll get localised for our market compared to the US. We're still waiting on Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Etrian Odyssey 4, Fire Emblem: Awakening and hopefully, Code of Princess. Who knows' if we'll get Unchained Blades, but if we get that I'll definitely zip over to the European eShop, as I don't see us Australasian gamers getting that title.
Apart from those titles mentioned, I'd also love to play Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D and Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, both games should be brilliant if they're able to make their way outta Japan, but we may have to wait until the next Nintendo Direct on 3DS games or E3 to know if we'll get them.

I have only played Crimson Shroud and Denpa Men's demo. Crimson Shroud is awesome and I don't understand some of the review I've read.
Denpa on the other hand was a big letdown, bland graphics, lame and boring battles and catching denpas can get very annoying.

Just finished Nostalgia (Okay, it's actually a DS game, but bear with me)!

Gameplay - It has solid traditional JRPG stuff (random turn based battles). The random encounter rate is comfortable, and in battle you can see who's turn it is next (like in FFX), so that's nice. Airship battles are a nice twist at first, but I found that later on they drag on too long (your ship's power soley depends on it's equipment, with your character levels not factoring in, and later on new airship parts can get obscenely expensive). The game is at a fair difficulty though, and as long as you take on sidequests whenever they become available (go to any Adventurer's Assossiation to check), you won't have to grind (except for once or twice later in the game, but that's more to farm money for good airship parts than anything). Walking around talking and such works just fine.

Production Values - It doesn't have the best 3D models on the DS, but it's certainly not horrible, and I had no trouble playing it on my 3DS. The characters are all in "chibi" style (like the DS FF games). There's a couple of times when the game trys to be cinematic, and while it is kinda neat, it's nothing too spectacular (I would have preferred CGI or anime cut-scenes for those particular events, but I imagine it had a smaller budget than the likes of FF, KH, or Suikoden).

Story - This is probably one of the most unique JRPGs I've ever played (set on an alternate Earth, visiting exotic locals such as the Pyramid of Giza, Noah's Ark, El Dorado, the Tower of Babel, Mt. Fuji, and more), so it has that going for it, but for some reason it just doesn't seem nearly as epic as it should be. That could be due to the characters, who are pretty generic for the most part, and in some cases, lame (seriously, one of your party members is named Pad, has an equally "interesting" design). There are a few standouts, though, such as the fiesty sky pirate Scarlett. Despite their genericness though, the characters have some surprisingly good side stories, one of which sends you through time (I won't spoil what happens, but it's a sidequest centered around one of your characters). I also felt that it was a little too Euro/Middle East focused, with the two regions having 6 cities/towns between them, while the other 6 are thinly spread out around the rest of the world (Africa, North America, South America, Asia, and a spoilerish secret location). Of course, this depends on where you designate India (which I have with the Middle East).

Overall, I'd say it's a solid 7/10 for me, and worth picking up for the $15 (new), if none of the current 3DS RPG offerings interest you (or you've played them all).

Just because some guy who writes stuff said so, doesn't make it true. It doesn't use a rule set for the RPG genre, and rules of play are how game genre is determined.

People think The Legend of Zelda is and RPG because they think that RPG means "fantasy genre". They see swords, monsters, and pointy ears, and a game must be an RPG. Even after learning otherwise, they usually just try to twist the meaning of RPG until they can still stuff fantasy games in the genre.

@steamhare read the article. I went into it in the "Zelda is an Action Adventure, duh!" camp, and frankly... his arguments are sound.
He changed my mind... the man is a games scholar.
Besides. Genre distinctions are crap, especially now days when the most popular brofest shooters involve grinding for xp and loot...

^No he doesn't. He's just calling it an Action-RPG because he doesn't know what else to call it (has he not heard of an Action-Adventure game?). Zelda is not really an Action-RPG. It lacks every single thing that makes an Action-RPG what it is. In fact, that article pretty much spelled it out. It lacks a focus on story, has a greater emphasis on puzzles and problem-solving than almost any Action-RPG out there, with every dungeon having lots of relatively complex puzzles, and many of its items having something to do with solving a puzzle. Then there's the total lack of proper level-ups, which means that battles are entirely skill-based. And in most of the Zelda games, there's little to no item management, meaning there's very little planning involved prior to battle.
(For the record, NPCs and quests are becoming less of an RPG staple - yes, most of them RPGs still have them, but so do a lot of non-RPGs now)

To put it simply, in a true Action-RPG, skill is never the sole key to victory. In Zelda, skill is the only thing you really have.

Anyone who says Zelda is an Action RPG has never actually spent enough time with a true Action-RPG.

Genre distinctions are crap, especially now days when the most popular brofest shooters involve grinding for xp and loot...

ahem.

And those games are still shooters. Those games still rely on skill, using only vague interpretations of RPG elements to add replay value and reward players who play more frequently. If Zelda even had RPG-like elements, but used them the same way those shooters did, it would still be an Action-Adventure game.

Genre definitions are important so people have a basic idea of how the game's supposed to play, without having to spend time looking up the game. It's a way for fans of certain types of games to know what to look for, and so non-fans know what to avoid. You don't go into a Zelda game expecting Diablo or Tales of Symphonia, not without extreme disappointment, at least.

Let me put it this way, here's what I think of when I hear of these genre names, just from the very words that make them up:Action-Adventure - The action part signifies skill-based gameplay, the adventure part signifies a focus on exploration and problem-solving.Action-RPG - The action part signifies skill based gameplay, while the RPG part means there is also number-based gameplay (stats, level-ups), planning (item management, equipment), and at least some emphasis on story, if not a large emphasis, but seeing as the "action" also tends to mean less emphasis on story, less focus could be expected.

Now tell me sir, which one sounds more like Zelda to you?

...Wolf O'Donnel later crashed his Gundam, and went back to flying Wolfens...

I am the Wolf...RedMy Den - My door is always open....Too bad it's an empty closet.My DeviantArt - I like to call it "the blank wall"

(For the record, NPCs and quests are becoming less of an RPG staple - yes, most of them RPGs still have them, but so do a lot of non-RPGs now)

To elaborate, western RPGs borrowed their dialogue trees, NPC interactions, and quest giving mechanics from adventure games. The random fetch quest given by an NPC is an adventure game staple from 20-30 years ago.